The Seventh Year Challenge
by cuz-CM's-awesome
Summary: AU Headmaster Dumbledore decides to ban Quidditch in hope that he can create better house unity with some new rules. What he doesn't count on is the Houses' persistence in being the best.
1. The Seventh Year Challenge

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, JK Rowling does and I'm not making any profit whatsoever off of this story. **

**Summary: AU Headmaster Dumbledore decides to ban Quidditch in hope that he can create better house unity with some new rules. What he doesn't count on is the Houses' persistence in being the best. **

**Harry beat Voldemort in sixth year he is now in his seventh year. **

**Sirius Black never fell through the veil and is now a Professor at Hogwarts. **

**Remus Lupin is also a Professor at Hogwarts. **

**This story will eventually be snarry slash. **

**I got the idea after playing a game of lemon with my friends. **

**Please R&R**

**Enjoy! **

**...**

"Harry!" Ron said running into the Gryffindor Common Room, he looked around wildly for his best friend and saw him sitting on the couch, Hermione by his side. He ran over to them, he was out of breath and had to take two deep breaths to fill his lungs before he could begin. He held out a scroll to his best friend who was looking at him in confusion and surprise. "You have to read this!" Ron demanded.

Harry took the scroll from Ron and scanned it over "What is it?" he asked looking up.

Ron shook his head, a frown on his face "It's just about the worst thing that ever could have happened to this school" Ron growled.

"What?" Hermione asked in surprise taking the paper from Harry.

"It's Dumbledore's new rules for the school" Ron began.

"New rules?" Harry asked, he had no idea what Ron was talking about "No one said anything about new rules."

"Well Dumbledore must have just thought of them" Ron said "It probably had something to do with our Quidditch game against Slytherin yesterday."

"I don't understand" Harry said.

Ron sighed and rubbed his forehead "Okay just listen and no interrupting got it?"

Hermione, Harry and practically the whole common room, since everyone seemed to be listening now, nodded.

"Right so this morning Hermione and I got this letter from Dumbledore asking one of us to come to his office, I said I would go because Hermione was working on her Transfiguration essay. When I got to Dumbledore's office Malfoy and the head boy of Huffelpuff were already there, then the head girl of Ravenclaw showed up too."

Ron had started pacing around as he recalled what happened in the Headmaster's office "Dumbledore sat us all down and offered us tea, once we were all settled he told us that after thinking about it thoroughly he has decided that there is too much negative competition between the houses. He said that watching us play Quidditch all these years and how houses interact when they meet each other in the halls he couldn't believe all the anarchy he was seeing. He told us with the way that we were all acting he wouldn't be surprised if another Dark Lord came to be and so he's decided the school needs change."

Ron stopped pacing and looked at everyone with a grim look. "He's banned Quidditch," there were collective shouts of 'no' and gasps throughout the room "he's making a seating plan for all classrooms so that we are intermixed and on every Friday he is going to make every student take an hour off their free time so that they can meet with students from other houses in their year."

"What?" Seamus shouted outraged "We have to hang out with the Slytherins in our year?"

"Yes as well as the Ravenclaws and Huffelpuffs." Ron declared.

"This can't be happening" Dean muttered.

"I assure you it is" Ron said sadly "Dumbledore has made up his mind, there's no changing it. He said he was going to be announcing it to the school tomorrow after dinner and that he was telling us early so that if anyone had any questions they could come to us."

Hermione looked back down at the parchment and mumbled just loud enough for Harry and Ron to hear "This isn't going to end well."

**...**

It had been a long week; the majority of the school hadn't taken the news about Dumbledore's new plans well. However the older years were the ones with the most problems with it. Not to mention Gryffindors and Slytherins were having more of a problem with it than Huffelpuffs and Ravenclaws but no matter what anyone said Dumbledore wouldn't change his mind.

So that night, Friday evening, everyone was in the Great Hall just finishing off their dinner when Dumbledore stood up at the head table and cleared his throat to get everyone's attention.

"Good evening everyone" Dumbledore began once all eyes were on him. "I hope you have taken this last week to come to terms with the new rules. I also hope you all go into this evening's activities with an open mind. You never know what you are going to learn from an experience unless you give it a chance."

Even though his words were sincere he was still met with openly hateful glares from the Gryffindors and Slytherins. Not to mention a few of the competitive teachers that were upset there would be no Quidditch cup to win this year.

Dumbledore frowned; this wasn't going to be easy.

There was silence as everyone continued to stare up at Dumbledore waiting for him to continue.

"Without further ado, here is the plan for tonight" Dumbledore began. "When you leave here tonight there will be a teacher assigned to each of your years, who will lead you to a designated room where you will spend an hour with your fellow year mates. No students will be excused; you all must spend the full hour in the room. Right, now first years your supervisor will be Professor Loviett. You can stay where you are when dinner is dismissed because you will be spending the hour in the great hall."

Dumbledore continued to go through all the years, telling them who would be their supervising teacher.

When he finally reached the seventh years the entire Great Hall was becoming restless.

"Seventh years, you're supervisor will be Professor McGonagall and you will be heading to the seventh floor" Dumbledore finished and then with one last look around the room gave a small sad smile and said "Enjoy your nights, everyone is dismissed."

**...**

"Well at least we have McGonagall" Harry said to Ron and Hermione after Dumbledore had dismissed them.

"Yeah" Ron agreed "I feel sorry for the sixth years."

They all turned to look at where the sixth years were gathering. A grim faced Professor Snape was sneering down at them while he waited impatiently for all of them to assemble.

"We better get a move on" Hermione stated pointing to the doors of the great hall where most of the seventh years were already standing. Ron and Harry nodded as they followed her to the other seventh years.

Soon they were being ushered out of the Great Hall by McGonagall as they made their way to the seventh floor.

"Where do you think we're going?" Hermione questioned as they reached the fourth floor.

Ron, who was in front of her, looked back at her from over his shoulder, he had a shocked expression on his face "Weren't you paying attention Mione? Dumbledore said we were to go up to the seventh floor."

Hermione glared at the back of his head after he had turned back around "I know which floor you dolt, I meant which room. None of the classrooms up there will fit all of us."

No one could disagree with her and they all started wondering where their transfiguration Professor was leading them.

Harry was shocked when they made it to the seventh floor and were standing outside of the room of requirement. He thought the room was supposed to be a secret but he guessed Dumbledore had decided to put it to good use.

Professor McGonagall led them into the room. It had become a cozy place to hang out, not unlike the Gryffindor common room only it wasn't coloured in red and gold. There were couches and armchairs scattered around the room. There was a big fireplace in the center and many chess sets placed around the room. Plus there was a washroom off to the side.

"Well" Professor McGonagall stated in her thick brogue "this is nice."

All the students turned to her. She gave them a stern look and said "I expect you all to be on your best behaviour tonight." All the students except for the Slytherins acknowledged her order.

Then she turned to leave "I'll be back in half an hour to check on you."

"What you're leaving?" Hermione asked in surprise.

"Yes" McGonagall said simply "Dumbledore's orders."

When she was gone all the students simply stood and looked at one another.

When the silence was getting intense Lavender Brown broke it "Hey Parvati" she said "Let's play that game you taught us the other night."

Parvati smiled "Sure."

"Padma is that the same game you taught us?" Lisa Turpin a Ravenclaw girl asked her friend.

"Probably" Padma said "Parvati is it the game we learned this summer at Uncle Ted's?"

"Yeah" Parvati told her sister.

"I'm in" Lisa said "that game is so much fun."

Interested now most of the girls from Ravenclaw, Huffelpuff and Gryffindor made their way over to the corner and Lavender asked the room for parchment and a quill.

The only two girls that were left were Hermione and Luna who both still stood beside Harry and Ron.

"Do you know what game they are talking about Hermione?" Luna asked her.

"Yes and its stupid" Hermione said with a shake of her head.

"Oh..." Luna said "I was probably off hunting for nargals when they played it."

Hermione frowned at Luna's comment but didn't say anything.

Some of the boys from Huffelpuff and Ravenclaw decided to go play chess. That left only the Gryffindor boys plus Luna and Hermione, and the entire Slytherin house glaring at each other in the middle of the room.

Finally Malfoy snapped "Damn this is so stupid, the old coot is off his rocker if he thinks putting us in here is going to make us like each other."

Normally Harry would have defended Dumbledore but he was pretty upset with the headmaster at the moment too so he let the comment slide.

"Well you're lucky Potter" Draco sneered "We would have whipped your asses on the Quidditch pitch at least now you don't have to go to the trouble of failing to defeat us."

"You wish Malfoy!" Harry growled glaring daggers at the blonde boy "We would have beat you hands down no problem; we wouldn't even have to break a sweat."

Both boys glared at each, Hermione could just see a fight waiting to happen.

Then there was a loud burst of laughter from the corner where the girls were sitting that distracted the two boys as they looked over at the girls.

Since the boys no longer looked like they were going to kill each other Hermione tentatively reached out her hand and grabbed Harry's arm. She motioned to him that he should follow her over to the couch near the fire. Harry scowled but followed her; the other Gryffindors did the same.

Malfoy didn't say anything as they moved away; he had his eyes downcast and looked like he was in thought.

"This is going to be a long hour" Ron mumbled when he, Hermione and Harry were sitting on the couch. Seamus, Dean, Neville and Luna were sitting around them.

"I wish I'd brought my homework" Hermione said and the boys rolled their eyes.

"Sitting here and complaining isn't going to get us anywhere" Luna said "We just have to think of something to do. What about a game of..."

Luna was cut off when Malfoy came up behind her "We need to find a way to settle this fair and square" Malfoy informed them "To decide which house is best."

"Nothing's ever fair with you Malfoy" Seamus said with a glare.

Malfoy glared at him right back but then turned his attention to Harry again. "I'm serious Potter; if we can't beat you at Quidditch we need something to declare who's the better house. Of course that's not actually hard to figure out." Malfoy said arrogantly referring to Slytherin.

Annoyed Harry asked sarcastically "What do you have in mind Malfoy? Play a game of exploding snap and whoever wins has the better house?"

Ignoring Harry's sarcasm Malfoy rolled his eyes and said "No Potter, it's got to be more extreme, something interesting and challenging."

"It should be something every member of our house can compete in" Hermione said speaking up.

Everyone looked at her.

"What?" she snapped "I'm tired of not being able to say I helped our house win the Quidditch cup and since Dumbledore is planning to not even have a house cup this year I want to be able to contribute to something."

"Granger has a point" Malfoy said a look of annoyance on his face as he called over the rest of his house.

"Then what's something we can all compete...?" Dean began but was cut off by another burst of laughter from the girl's corner.

"What about an intellectual quiz?" Hermione suggested.

"No way" Malfoy said "Too boring."

"Hey we want in on this too" Justin Finch-Fletchley said, he had been standing nearby and heard the conversation.

Malfoy looked like he was going to refuse but then Harry spoke up "Well that's only fair since we are competing to see who the best house is, Ravenclaw should be in it too." When Harry saw the look on Malfoy's face he snorted "You're not afraid of a little competition are you Malfoy?"

Malfoy glared "No. Ravenclaw and Huffelpuff should be in it. But we all know who the winners are already going to be."

"Don't be so sure Malfoy" Ron growled "You don't even know what the challenge is going to be yet."

That got everybody thinking.

They were disturbed again by another loud burst of laughter from the girl's corner.

Malfoy jumped up annoyed "What the hell are you doing over there?" he yelled over to the girls.

Lavender looked up from where she was sitting on the floor "What's it to you Malfoy?"

Malfoy growled "You're making so much noise we can barely concentrate over here, that's what."

Lavender smirked "That's too bad for you."

Before Malfoy could snap at her Hermione spoke up with an air of superiority "They're playing this stupid game."

Lavender looked annoyed "It's not stupid it's fun. You're just too uptight Hermione Granger!"

Hermione gaped at her but before a cat fight could start up Ron looked over at Lavender and asked "Can you tell us what the game is about?"

Lavender smirked at Hermione "Sure" she said "So Padma and Parvati went to their Uncle's last summer and his kids taught them this game that they had learned while they were at school."

Lavender turned to Padma and the girl spoke up "Basically you get a piece of parchment and a quill then you write down all the names of the people that are playing."

"Then say you have five girls playing you have to write down five boy's names. It can be someone the girls like but it's funnier if it's someone like their professor." Lavender told them.

"After that you have to right down five places, say like the Great hall or the Quidditch pitch." Lisa said speaking up.

"Next you have to write down five different body parts and last but not least you have to write down five different things you can do with a lemon like lick it or squeeze it." Padma continued.

"Then you randomly count off the number five on each of the columns and when you are done you fit them together to make a sentence. So for example" Lavender said grabbing the parchment they had been using "You'll get a sentence like, Padma kissed Hagrid's ear in the girl's bathroom."

All of the girls laughed and some of the other occupants of the room did too.

"That's it!" Malfoy shouted startling everyone "That will be the challenge."

"What are you talking about Malfoy?" Hermione asked disgusted.

"We will use that for the challenge only it will be slightly different" Malfoy said.

"That's crazy" Ron said shaking his head.

"No hear me out" Malfoy said and when no one interrupted him he continued. "We will write all of our names down and put them into a hat or something" Malfoy said transfiguring a pillow for the couch into a wizard's hat. "Then we will have another hat and fill it with professors' names. A third hat for names of body parts and a fourth for things you can do with a lemon. Then we will use magic to call a name from the hat, four names altogether; one from each of our houses. Then those people will have to pick a piece of parchment from each one of the hats. Whatever sentence they get they have to perform during the week, like if they got kiss Lupin's hand they would have to do it by the end of the week. Then they would get awarded points for how daring the move was. And when we meet on Friday again another four people get picked."

"What about the places?" Harry asked and Hermione gasped.

"You're not actually thinking about doing this?" she asked Harry.

"Maybe" Harry said with a shrug "Now...places?"

"That would be up to the person to decide since you can't really get a male Professor to willingly walk into the girl's bathroom, which would be too hard. You'll get more or less points depending on where you do your challenge. Like if it is in front of a classroom full of students you get more points than if you were just in a corridor with only one or two people around."

"Who will be the judge?" Terry Boot asked coming over "It can't be anyone from our houses they would be biased."

The whole room grew silent as they thought about it.

Then they heard someone walk into the room and all looked over to see Professor McGonagall had come back.

She looked at them in slight bewilderment, she had thought they would be fighting but they were all just sitting and standing silently. "Everything going okay in here?" she asked and most of the room nodded. "Alright she said with a shrug carry on."

When they were sure she was gone Dean spoke up "What about getting the ghosts to judge?"

The idea was passed around for a bit but finally Blaise shook his head "That wouldn't work because they might tell, I'm sure most of them would be against it. The only two I can think of that wouldn't be are the Bloody Barren and Nearly Headless Nick and again they are both biased."

"How about the house elves?" Pansy suggested.

"That wouldn't work either" Harry said "The house elves are employed by Dumbledore if the thought they were doing something to hurt him or his staff they would beat themselves bloody."

Silence fell in the room again but then Ron shouted "I've got it" he said and when everyone looked expectantly at him he smiled and said "Peeves!"

"That actually has some merit" Malfoy said.

"Of course it does" Ron grinned "Peeves wouldn't tell the teachers and he would appreciate what we were doing because he would see it as one big prank and on the plus side he doesn't favour any house."

There was a poof in the middle of the room and everyone stared at a grinning Peeves "Did someone call my name?" he asked with a shout.

"Yes we did actually" Draco said and he explained to Peeves what they were planning to do. By the end of the explanation Peeves was swishing around their heads "Yippee Yahoo" he yelled "it's pranking time. Of course I'll be your judge!"

"Good" Malfoy stated "Hey Blaise do you still have that pensive you got for your birthday?"

"Yes" Blaise said "It's in the dorm."

"If you brought it here with you each Friday we could let Peeves go over our memories of the events so that he can better judge them."

"Sure" Blaise said.

"We should have rules that if you don't do your challenge you get points taken away" Luna said in her dreamy voice.

"Yeah that's a good idea" Malfoy said.

"But you should have a choice of it you want to do your challenge or not" Padma said "Like say you got lick Snape's butt you should be able to decline."

"Hmm...what if as soon as you got the challenge you have the choice to decline it but if you don't decline and you still end up not doing the challenge during the week then you get points taken away?" Harry suggested.

"But then the house wouldn't get any points that week" Justin pointed out.

"We could appoint one person to be the leader of each team and if a team member declines the challenge they have a chance of doing the challenge instead." Dean said.

The room thought it over "That sounds fair" Lavender said.

"Someone get a parchment and quill, we should be writing this down." Blaise said and Lavender went to get him the quill and parchment they had been using.

"What about disqualifications?" Seamus asked "What can't you do."

"You can't tell anyone about the game other than the people in this room. You can't tell them because you are explaining why you groped your teachers ass instead you come up with your own excuse and take the punishment. And you can't tell another student just because you think it's funny and you wanna share. No telling or your whole house is disqualified." Malfoy declared.

They all sat silently for a moment and then Malfoy looked over at Harry "I think that just about covers it" He said.

"Wait" Harry said "The number of students outweighs the number of teachers and I can't think of more than a few things to do with a lemon that would make sense."

"So we have doubles" Pansy suggested "Doubles of teachers and doubles of things to do with them. As well as doubles of body parts."

Hermione realising that they were really going to go through with this decided she wanted to add one rule of her own. "There should be no impossible challenges" she said speaking for the first time.

"What do you mean Granger?" Malfoy asked.

"Like there couldn't be a challenge: Blank sucks Professor Black's...cock...that's just not possible and it would get the student expelled if they tried."

"She has a point" Susan Bones said "I wouldn't put my school career on the line for a silly challenge."

"Fine" Malfoy said "Blaise add that to the list of things we won't do. Now do we have everything covered?"

There was a murmur around the room.

"I think so" Harry said "Now all we have to do is pick out team captions and get the hats with names ready."

"Right" Malfoy said "We should start it today."

All the houses gathered into groups and began to decide who would be their team leaders.

"You should do it Harry" Lavender said loudly.

Harry shook his head "No it should be the person most willing to take on any challenge."

"So who then?" Ron asked.

Harry looked up at Seamus who he had caught snogging three different people, two of them had been male while the other had been female.

Seamus blushed under the intense stare "I don't know..." he began.

"Come on Seamus I know you would be more willing to do things that most of us might not want to." Harry said.

"Okay" Seamus said.

They had ten minutes and then they all got back into a circle while Malfoy called for the team captains to put their hands up. Malfoy was the leader for his house, Michael Corner was for Ravenclaw and Ernie Macmillan was the leader of Huffelpuff.

They then charmed the transfigured hats to float in the middle of them and spelled for four names, one from each house to fly out of the first hat. The names then flew to the team captains and they had to read off who was chosen from his team.

Malfoy went first "Pansy" he said looking at the girl beside him.

Pansy smirked at everyone and then turned to Ernie to see who the Huffelpuff challenger was "Justin" Ernie said. Justin looked a little nervous but then he nodded his head and looked at the Gryffindors.

Seamus looked at the parchment and called out "Neville." Neville who had been trying to blend into the background gaped and shook his head nervously.

For Ravenclaw Terry called out "Luna." Luna just smiled.

Then the three hats were past around and the challengers had to pick out a piece of paper from each.

When each challenger had all three pieces of parchment they one by one read their sentence to the whole group.

Pansy looked done out her papers and read "I have to grab Filch's shoulder" she said and her face turned in disgust as she thought of touching the dirty squib janitor.

"That one's easy" Ron burst out annoyed.

"Maybe for you" Pansy said in a huff.

"Just leave it" Harry snapped at Ron "We're running out of time, our hour is almost up."

"Fine" Ron said.

Next Justin read out "I must lick Professor's Black's foot. How am I supposed to do that, he wears shoes!"

"So you have to lick his shoe" Malfoy said.

Justin made a disgusting face but didn't protest further.

Neville nervously read his "I must squeeze Professor Loviett's hand."

"That's not too bad Neville" Hermione whispered to him.

Neville just shook his head and waited for Luna to go "I have to kiss Professor Lupin's cheek." Luna said and blushed slightly.

"Good" Malfoy said standing up he raised his wand in the air and let sparks fly from it "Let the Seventh Year House Challenge begin."


	2. The Beginning

**Don't Own **

**Please R&R **

**I haven't updated my stories for a while but I'm finally getting back into the swing of things, so here we go. **

**If anyone has any ideas of what challenges I can use for the other three students, your input would be appreciated. **

**Enjoy! **

…

Surprisingly it was Neville who initiated the first of the challenges.

They were in Muggle Studies the next day. A class that Dumbledore had insisted every student, no matter what year, take at the beginning of the year. He had argued, with the Board of School Governors, that it was important for all students to know about the Muggle World as well as the Wizarding one. The Board was against it at first but after a little bit of persuading and the threat of another Dark Lord coming to be, they finally agreed.

Neville walked up to the front of the class because he was supposed to be presenting his project for the class about how the Wizarding World and the Muggle one affected each other.

For a moment Neville looked out at the class and fidgeted nervously.

"Whenever you're ready Neville" Mrs. Loviett said prompting him to start.

"Uh right…" Neville said, coughing to clear his throat "Well my topic was about how the Wizarding World affects the Muggle World and vice versa. Sometimes I think that we don't really realize that both worlds are affecting each other but really if you look closely enough you can always find examples of the contrary. As a good example of how the Wizarding World effects the Muggle World just think about the way muggles greet each other for the first time."

Neville stopped for a second and walked over to Mrs. Loviett. "Professor do you think I could ask for your assistance for a visual example?"

Mrs. Loviett smiled "Of course Neville, what a splendid idea to help engage the class."

Neville blushed slightly but held out his hands take the Professor's outstretched one. He took it firmly, and squeezed gently as he shook it. When he pulled away he thanked the Professor for her help and then moved back to his original stance. He went on to talk about how this shaking of hands came to be in the Muggle World.

When he was finished with his presentation all the Gryffindors in the room applauded loudly.

Mrs. Loviett smiled "I'm glad to see you're all taking a healthy interest in this class."

…

All the seventh year Gryffindors patted Neville on the back that day at lunch.

"That was awesome Neville!" Ron stated slapping the other boy on the back as he sat down beside him.

Neville was blushing fiercely.

Hermione who was sitting across from the boys nodded her head "Even though I can't really say that I approve of this challenge, I have to admit that the way that you handled that was rather clever."

Neville blushed even more "Uh thanks, I came up with the idea last night while I was practicing what I should say today."

"Well it was brilliant!" Ron said as he grabbed a sandwich "And it's bound to get us ahead in the game, I mean you did it in front of a whole classroom!"

The 7th years cheered again as they dug into their food.

…

The next day for DADA Remus was taking the class outside the castle and into the forest like area just behind Hagrid's hut. There, Remus had told them, that they would find a clearing where they could look for knarls, which were hedgehog like creatures, that they had just started studying.

The students had been excited all week for this, since the weather was still nice outside and they were happy to be out getting fresh air instead of stuck inside the stuffy, old castle.

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville were working together to catch the knarls they needed. Remus had told them each group needed four, one for each person.

All of the students were in a particularly good mood as they chatted in the nice weather and tried to catch the fast moving knarls.

"Yes!" Ron shouted in triumph as he was able to grab a knarl before it could scurry back into its den. However his victory was cut short when the knarl turned around and bit his hand angrily. Ron dropped the thing with a yelp while Hermione giggled. "Bugger" Ron grumbled as he glared at Hermione.

Suddenly a girl screamed and everybody looked over at Luna who was jumping around and trying to flick something off her back as she cried "Get it off, get it off!"

Remus was there is seconds "What's wrong?" he asked calmly "What's on you?"

"A vicious, rabid nargal!" Luna cried.

"What?" Remus asked confused.

"The nargal, it's on my back, please get it off!" Lana's voice was a scared sounding whimper.

Remus still looked confused but he jumped into action at her tone. He made Luna stand still and then swatted at her shoulder area where Luna had indicated the 'nargal' was.

Luna sighed in relief dramatically. "Thanks Professor" she said and she leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "If that nargal had bitten me I surely would have gone mad with infection" Luna told the blushing, shocked Professor.

Then Luna skipped away dreamily, heading back towards her group. However she sent a wink at Harry, Ron, Neville and Hermione before she went.

They all gaped at her.

"I never knew Luna had that in her" Hermione whispered quietly.

They all turned to Remus who was still slightly red.

He stumbled with his words at first before he got control of himself and said "What are you all looking at? Get back to catching your knarls, there's only thirty minutes left in class."

After shooting him a few last looks the class got back to work.

…

On Thursday afternoon Harry was coming out of Transfiguration when he heard someone calling his name. He turned around and saw Sirius standing in the middle of the hall beckoning him over.

Harry moved quickly, since he had another class in ten minutes.

"Hey Sirius," he said "What's up?"

Sirius smiled and ruffled Harry's hair, Harry was glad that not many people were around to see "I just wanted to ask if you were planning to go to Hogsmede this weekend?"

"I was," Harry said "I mean there's nothing much more to do around the castle. Why?"

"Well Remus and I are supposed to chaperoning and I was thinking that perhaps we could head to the Three Broomsticks and catch up, I'd like to know how the school year has been treating you since we don't normally get a chance to talk outside of classes."

"Yeah sure, that sounds fine." Harry answered "Is it okay if Ron and Hermione come to?"

"Sure it is, the more the mer…" Sirius began but was cut off.

"Professor Black…Professor Black!" Justin said running towards them.

"Yes?" Sirius asked.

"I…I uh…" Justin stumbled.

Sirius gave him a questioning look.

"Uh there's something on your boot!" Justin said quickly and Sirius looked down just as Justin dived to the ground with a quick "Oh I'll get it."

Within three seconds Justin had licked Sirius' boot, jumped up and ran away with a squeaky shouted "Bye!"

Sirius stared after Justin for a moment, wide eyed, before he looked back at Harry and asked "Did that boy just lick my boot?"

Harry's eyes were tearing with an effort not to laugh "I dunno" he said to Sirius with a shrug.

Sirius shook his head "That was weird…" he said before looking back at Harry "You better get to class or you'll be late. I'll see you this weekend."

Harry walked away, still holding in his laughter at the look on Sirius' face.

…

Friday night came quickly and soon enough the seventh years were heading up to the seventh floor, this time lead by Professor Flitwick.

As soon as they were in the Room of Requirement the Professor wished them all a goodnight and told them he would be back to check on them in half an hour.

Once he was gone Draco looked to Blaise "Where's the pensive?"

"Right here" Blaise said pulling the small cup out of his robe pocket and handing it to Draco.

"Thanks" Draco said going to the middle of the room and placing the pensive on a table there.

All of the students crowded around the table, sorting themselves into their four houses.

"Peeves?" Harry called out into the quiet room and was startled when Peeves popped up right next to his ear.

"Are you ready for me to be the judge?" he yelled happily.

"Yeah" Draco said before Harry could answer. "Who wants to go first?"

"We will" Ron said and gently prodded Neville forward.

Shakily Neville used his wand to pull his memory of Muggle Studies out of his mind and he placed it in the pensive.

Hermione pulled out her own wand and cast a spell on the pensive so the memory rose up and they were able to watch it like you would a movie at a movie theater.

Everyone was silent as the memory played out. Once it was done they all looked at Peeves expectantly.

"Interesting…very interesting," he said and everyone waited, holding their breaths "It was very creative and in front of a lot of students. It was well executed and no one suspected a thing. Though the subject matter was a little boring but I guess you had no choice in that."

Everyone stayed silent as he thought it over. Finally Peeves squawked "I'm awarding Gryffindor twenty five points!"

The Gryffindors cheered.

Next up was Hufflepuff. Again everyone was silent.

"Hmm…" Peeves mumbled "That was slightly disappointing. There weren't many people around and Black was definitely suspicious after however the task was daunting. There aren't many instances when you would have to lick someone's foot. So for that and because you actually did it, I award Hufflepuff fourteen points."

The Hufflepuffs clapped a bit while Justin hung his head.

Slytherin went next.

Harry was excited to see how Pansy had fulfilled the challenge since he hadn't heard anything about what she had done.

The memory was short and pitiful. Pansy had walked up behind Filch and disgustedly stuck her hand out, looking away uncomfortable as she lightly tapped Filch on the shoulder and then quickly pulled away.

Her touch was so light that Filch hadn't even felt it and he continued on mopping the floor.

Peeves frowned "That, was bad" he said with a shake of his head and your task wasn't even hard. I give Slytherin five points."

All the Slytherins groaned and glared at Pansy.

"Well sorry" Pansy said not sounding sorry at all "But there was no way I was going to grab that filthy squib, disgusting."

"Oh come on Pansy, you're so stuck up! It's not like he was going to zap your magic or something" Blaise growled.

"How do you know…?" Pansy began but Draco cut her off.

"Enough" he shouted "You're wasting time. Let's get this last memory watched so we can put away the pensive before Flitwick comes back."

Luna quickly stood up and placed her memory in the pensive.

There was a tense silence as they waited for Peeves' decision.

It was quiet for a moment before Peeves shouted "That was great! You pulled it off easily without problem and it front of a group of people. Not to mention it was the most entertaining out of all of the memories. I award Ravenclaw thirty six points."

Ravenclaw cheered and a few of the Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs clapped along too, it really had been the best memory out of the four.

Harry clapped loudly; if Gryffindor didn't win he would rather Ravenclaw won instead of Slytherin or Hufflepuff.

They had just gotten the pensive away when Professor Flitwick walked in. "How's it going in here?" he squeaked.

"Good" everyone called.

Flitwick furrowed his brows but shook his head after a minute and left the room.

"That was close" Hermione said.

"No kidding" Ron stated as Peeves jumped out from behind a chair where he had been hiding.

"Okay" Draco said "Let's get this week's challenges picked."

Harry watched as the hats they had been using the week before flew into the middle of the room.

"Since Ravenclaw won this round they should go first" Hermione said.

Terry nodded and stood up to pick a name out of the hat. "Padma" he called out and the girl in question groaned.

Draco stood up next and picked a name out of the hat "Blaise" he said.

Next was Hufflepuff, Ernie stood up and grabbed a name "Hannah" he called out.

Lastly Seamus stood up and grabbed a name out of the hat "Harry" he read.

'Damn' Harry thought but he nodded his understanding and then watched as the hats floated to Padma first before floating to Blaise, then Hannah and finally him.

Harry pulled out his words and gaped in horror at the sentence they formed.

Harry barely heard what anyone else said as he looked down at what he had to do. His heart was hammering in his chest and he had started to sweat. 'Why me…why me…why me…" was the mantra running through his head.

He was startled out of his panic when Hermione gently laid a hand on his shoulder. Harry looked up and realized everyone was staring at him. "It's your turn Harry" Hermione said gently.

Harry swallowed and everyone waited quietly for him to say what he had gotten.

After thirty second of silence Draco huffed and said "Oh come on Potter, it can't be that bad."

Harry breathed deeply and then stated "I have to kiss Snape on the lips."


	3. The Road To Expulsion

**I don't own Harry Potter or Shakespeare's sonnet 'Shall I compare thee to a summer's day.' **

**Please R&R **

**This was fun to write so I hope you enjoy it! **

**…**

All of the other seventh years gaped at him with looks of shock and horror on their faces.

The only one not wearing a shocked or horrified look was Draco; he was smirking at Harry with a very pleased expression on his face.

Harry shuddered, he had a feeling that he wouldn't be able to get out of this one.

Ron looked disgusted as he shook his head, mumbling something under his breath.

Hermione was wide eyed before she turned to look at Draco "What about the impossible challenge rule? This challenge isn't possible, it could get Harry expelled!"

Draco shook his head but it was Terry who objected Hermione's reasoning. "It's not impossible," Terry said and he gestured towards his house "Luna could have gotten expelled for kissing Lupin on the cheek but she made it work."

Most of the students in the room nodded their agreement.

"But this is Snape!" Hermione almost yelled "He's been trying to have Harry expelled since his first year here and kissing someone on the cheek is a whole different scenario than kissing someone on the lips."

"Yeah well I haven't seen Snape try to get Potter expelled for a while and all the times he did before, Potter had deserved it." Draco said arrogantly "Besides you can't just blame it on the teacher. If Lovegood had gotten kiss Snape on the cheek we all would have expected her to do it."

"But…" Hermione began again before Harry waved her off.

"They're right Hermione, it's a fair challenge" Harry said.

"You can't honestly believe that!" Hermione said outraged.

"Leave it Granger," Draco sneered "Potter has already agreed."

Hermione was shaking her head "Harry please think about your future, you can't go through with this. You can't throw your education away just to win some stupid challenge."

Harry frowned at Hermione; he didn't know what his friend expected him to do. He couldn't just let his house down and show weakness in front of Malfoy. Then Harry remembered one of the other rules and quickly glanced over at Seamus.

Seamus caught the look Harry was giving him and realized what the other boy wanted, he quickly started shaking his head "No way Harry, I know I agreed to be the team captain but there are some things I just won't do."

Draco laughed from across the room "Man I never thought I would see the day Potter realized he can't do everything, and especially over some silly little challenge."

Harry glared at Draco.

"Oh don't worry Potter I'm sure your house won't think badly of you," Draco goaded "even if the rest of us know you're just a coward when it comes down to it."

Neville placed his hand on Harry's shoulder and Harry whipped around to stare at him. Neville gulped and patted his shoulder "You don't have to do this Harry, no one will think badly of you, Malfoy is just being a jerk."

Harry shook his head "I have to," he said quietly and then more loudly "I accept the challenge, I'll do it."

Malfoy grinned and the others around the room looked shocked.

Hermione scowled.

**…**

The next day found the trio making their way to the Three Broomsticks where they said they would meet Sirius and Remus.

Hermione was going on and on about how stupid it was of Harry to agree to that challenge. Harry and Ron were left following along grumpily behind her.

"I mean of all the stupid things you could have chosen to do…I knew this challenge thing was a bad idea from the moment Malfoy thought of it. I can just see Professor Snape after you k…he'll be so angry. I'm not even sure he'll wait to go to Dumbledore to get you expelled, he might just tear you a new one right where you're standing…"

"Hermione enough!" Ron growled "You're not making this any easier on Harry; we understand that you don't like this but you're just going to have to trust Harry on this one."

Hermione glared, she had been doing that since Harry had agreed the night before "Don't encourage him Ronald Weasley. If he knows what's good for him he will not attempt to do this silly challenge this week and just tell everyone else that the opportunity never came up. There's no reason to be expelled for something you could have prevented…"

Ron fell back beside Harry and gave him an apologetic look.

"It's okay Ron, Hermione's just worried about me and even though I wished she would stop going on about it, I know it's just her way of trying to protect me" Harry said, shaking his head as he watched Hermione; the girl was basically ranting to herself now.

Ron nodded "I know…it's just getting really tiresome…"

Harry gave Ron a look to say he agreed.

When they reached The Three Broomsticks Hermione stopped and turned around "So you see the notion of this is just stupid. You must agree not to go through with it before it's too late."

"Fine," Harry said, mentally crossing his fingers "I won't go through with it."

Hermione beamed at him "I knew you'd come to your senses" she then turned and walked into the pub.

Ron looked over at him with a questioningly look. "I thought it would be better for everyone to tell her what she wanted to hear, even if I don't plan to go along with it" Harry explained.

"Hermione's not going to be happy" Ron said.

"I know," Harry sighed "but what can I do?"

Ron shook his head "There's not much else you can do."

Before Harry could reply a hand landed on his shoulder and Harry look over to see Sirius grinning at him.

"Glad to see you didn't forget about today" Sirius beamed and Harry tried to smile back.

Remus was standing beside Sirius and he caught Harry's eye, he gave the boy a worried look and Harry quickly looked away.

"Well what are we waiting for?" Sirius asked as he gestured that they should move inside.

As they walked inside Hermione waved them over to a booth at the back. She gave Harry and Ron a suspicious look as the two sat down but didn't get a chance to question them when a waiter came by to take their orders.

Sirius patted Harry on the back once they all had their orders placed "So how was the rest of your week after Wednesday?"

Harry shrugged "It was fine I guess."

"You guess?" Sirius asked with a frown.

"Yeah nothing really…uh special happened…" Harry said looking away.

Sirius looked at him in confusion but didn't continue to question him.

"How's the house unity going?" Remus asked.

Harry bit his lip and looked to Hermione and Ron, they both looked rather nervous.

"It's okay…" Hermione offered "not the greatest considering…"

"Slytherins" Ron finished for her.

Sirius shuddered "I know, I couldn't believe Dumbledore when he announced his plans to us. I think the old man has finally lost it."

"Sirius" Remus began in a warning tone.

"What?" Sirius asked "It's true! Putting the Slytherins and Gryffindors together, that's just mental."

"I think it's good" Remus said and they all stared blankly at him "It's about time the Houses started getting along."

Sirius shook his head "Forget about Dumbledore…now you're acting mental!"

Remus rolled his eyes "It's true, if the Houses had gotten along back in Voldemort's time maybe he never would have become who he was."

"Nah," Harry disagreed "Voldemort was doomed from the start; it didn't have much to so with the Houses, I mean look at Pettigrew."

Sirius and Remus looked uncomfortable at that and Harry felt embarrassed he had said anything.

Finally Sirius broke the silence "So do you three know anything about why the seventh years are acting so strange?"

Harry tensed and tried to keep his face blank "The seventh years? What about us?"

"It's your classmates, they've been acting rather weird lately" Sirius said.

"Really?" Hermione asked "How so?"

"Well…" Sirius said giving them a questioning look "That Hufflepuff boy licked my boot the other day and Remus told me that Luna kissed him."

"On the cheek!" Remus hissed, embarrassed.

"That is a bit weird but nothing's going on that I know of," Hermione stated "You two?" she looked at Ron and Harry.

"Nope" Harry said.

"Haven't heard anything" Ron said.

Sirius and Remus shared a look but didn't comment.

Harry looked away from the two adults, worried that his face would give something away. He looked around the room and his eyes caught on a familiar face sitting at the bar.

Professor Snape was drinking a glass of what Harry could only assume was firewhiskey as he sat with his back to the bar looking out at the crowded room full of students…he was undoubtedly looking for troublemakers.

Before Harry could look away the Professor turned and caught his eye. Harry shivered.

"Harry are you alright?" Sirius asked "You're looking a little pale."

"What?" Harry asked snapping his gaze back to Sirius "Uh yeah…I'm fine."

Sirius gave him a searching look and then turned his attention to where Harry had been staring. Sirius clenched his fists at the sight of Snape "Snivellus that git, out of all the people that we could have gotten stuck sharing chaperoning duties with…I have a feeling Dumbledore trying to spread that house unity bullshit on to us teachers too."

"Sirius calm down" Remus said, laying a hand on Sirius shoulder "It's not worth getting upset over."

Harry looked back at Snape and the older man glared at him before putting down his glass and heading for the door.

"Right…he better leave," Sirius growled "should know when he's not wanted."

Harry gulped when he saw the look of pure hatred on Sirius' face, he wondered what his godfather would do if it got back to him that he was going to kiss Snape.

Harry felt uncomfortable and his hands started to sweat "You know…" he began and Sirius stopped his growling to look over at Harry "I'm not feeling very well, I think I'm going to head back up to the castle."

"Harry…what?" Sirius began but Harry shook his head.

"I just have a bit of a headache, it's a little loud in here," Harry said looking at the door "but you guys should stay, I'll see you later."

Sirius looked disappointed but then he stood up and followed Harry "Nah, we'll walk you back, don't worry about it."

Harry barely acknowledged Sirius' offer, then he was walking out of the pub with a confused Sirius following behind him.

**…**

Harry stared moodily down at his Charms text, he, Hermione and Ron were sitting at a table at the back of the Library trying to get their homework done. It was already Wednesday and Harry still hadn't figured out how to go about kissing Snape.

Hermione was scowling at him again. Soon after their afternoon at The Three Broomsticks Hermione had figured out that Harry was still planning to go through with the challenge and they had gotten into a big fight.

Ron was sitting uncomfortably between them has he tried to defuse the tension.

Hermione opened her mouth and both boys groaned knowing that she was about to go into another rant.

Harry didn't understand why Hermione couldn't just accept it.

However she never got the chance to begin because at that moment, from a few tables away, Blaise stood up with flair, his cloak sweeping around him. He stood in the middle of the Library and received a few curious glances.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer's Day?" Blaise said loudly and everyone looked, including a surprised Madame Pince. Blaise took a step towards a group of Slytherin girls at another table "Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May." Blaise winked at the girls at the table and then turned around quickly; he stalked back to the table where he had been sitting and smirked at Draco, Pansy and a few other Slytherins there.

"And summer's lease hath all too short a date. Sometime to hot the eye of heaven shines." Blaise stalked around the table making his way to Pansy, now everyone was staring at him intently. "And often is his gold complexion dimm'd; and every fair from fair, by chance, or nature's changing course, untrimmed. But thy eternal summer shall not fade." At that point Blaise leaned down next to Pansy and brushed the hair from her neck, his hand sliding over her skin.

Then he withdrew his hand and leaped onto a chair at the next table. Apparently this movement finally snapped Madame Pince out of her shock and she walked swiftly to where Blaise was standing on the chair.

"Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;" Blaise continued and he stepped onto the table before him, "Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade."

"Now you get down from there young man!" Madame Pince practically screeched, "This is a Library not some fancy theater. I will not tolerate these shenanigans in here."

Blaise looked down at her "When in eternal lines to time thou growest."

"I mean it" Madame Pince said in a no nonsense tone "I will send you to the Headmaster's office."

Blaise jumped off the table and landed beside her "So long as men can breathe or eyes can see," he said as he reached out his hand a laid it upon Madame Pince's cheek. He caressed it as she stood there in shock and he finished the last line of the sonnet "So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."

Madame Pince pulled back in outrage and Blaise dropped his hand "A sonnet by William Shakespeare."

"I don't care who it's bloody by," Madame Pince practically growled and everyone gasped at her language "this is unacceptable, trying to embarrasses me in front of other students, I never. Bring your belongings Mr. Zambini; I believe a trip to the Headmaster is in order."

Blaise suppressed a groan but gave Draco a grin before he grabbed his things and quickly followed the Librarian.

Hermione was shaking her head "Did you see that…I cannot believe Zambini just did that to Madame Pince, this challenge was a very bad idea indeed. I urge you again to reconsider your decision Harry!" Hermione huffed and then got up and stomped away.

Harry groaned and rubbed his face with his hands.

When he looked back up at Ron the other boy had an amazed look on his face. "I hate to say this but Zambini has balls."

Harry groaned again, glared at Ron and walked away like Hermione.

"What?" Ron asked as he was left alone.

**…**

That night Harry was sitting in the common room next to the fire, he was trying to decide how to complete his challenge. If Blaise could pull off what he had today, Harry was sure he could figure out something.

Harry threw his head back against the back of the couch and let out a groan; he glared at the ceiling in frustration.

"Harry?"

Harry looked up to see Neville and Ron looking at him, they must have just come through the portrait hole.

"Yeah?" Harry asked in annoyance.

Neville looked away and Harry realized his tone had been kind of harsh.

"Sorry" he said "I'm just a bit stressed at the moment."

"Still haven't thought about what you're going to do?" Ron asked sitting down beside him.

"No," Harry grunted.

"That sucks mate," Ron said "but look on the bright side."

"What bright side?" Harry asked.

"If you don't end up kiss..ugh…well you know with Snape, at least Gryffindor won't be the only ones losing points this week" Ron supplied.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well on our way back here Neville and I saw Padma try to rub McGonagall's neck, since that was her challenge, but as soon as she got close enough to McGonagall to do it, McGonagall turned around and caught her. She snapped at Padma for following her and then took ten points from Ravenclaw. Though I guess it doesn't really matter if we won't be having a house cup anyways."

Harry shrugged "Well it will be ten times worse when…if I try to kiss Snape. I'm sure he won't just try to take points but he'll give me detention for the rest of the year or expel me…or even more likely, kill me. But if I don't do it I'll have to listen to Malfoy ridicule me for the rest of my life."

"Well really you've got to ask yourself what would be worse," Ron said.

Harry groaned again "I don't know what to do."

Neville looked at him seriously "Maybe it would be for the best if you just didn't go through with it. I'm sure everyone else would understand."

**…**

When Friday rolled around Harry was in a horrible mood. He still hadn't completed his challenge and Draco had been smirking at him every chance he got.

Dinner that night was a silent affair. None of the Seventh year Gryffindors were talking and the rest of the house seemed to take note. They seemed afraid to say anything, so they all ate quietly.

Harry groaned when they found out that Snape had been assigned to bring them up to the Room of Requirement that evening. Harry was one of the first in line and he could hear Draco whispering mockingly behind him.

When they got the door Snape stood there waiting for Harry to enter. He scowled at the boy when Harry just stared at him and made no attempt to move.

"Potter…" Snape snapped.

'Oh screw it!' Harry thought to himself, he couldn't go around being known as a coward so he leapt forward and pulled himself against Snape's body. He could hear the gasps behind him and felt Snape tense as he entwined a hand into the professor's hair and pulled the man forward. He meshed his lips against Snape's and kissed the older man soundly.


	4. Stranger Things Have Happened

**Don't Own **

**Please R&R**

**Hey everyone, if you get a chance you should check out my sister's story 'Betrayal' it's a good snarry story with potential. Her penname is Irishlove4Snape and you can find a link to her profile on my profile. **

**Anyways hope you enjoy and thanks for reading! **

…

As his lips pressed more firmly against his Professor's, Harry forgot about the challenge and everyone behind them.

Soon the sounds of the other students faded away and all Harry could hear was the rustling of his and Snape's clothed bodies, and the harsh breathing between the two of them.

Harry could feel himself pushing closer to Snape as he tried to deepen the kiss.

He smelt the faint scent of potions ingredients mixed with something indescribable…something purely Snape.

Harry felt his hand, which had been in Snape's hair, move of its own accord down to the man's chest.

That's when Snape's hands landed on his shoulders and pushed him away violently.

The kiss had been moist and firm and intimate, and it left Harry wanting more. It had only lasted a few seconds but it had seemed like an eternity to him. Harry didn't know what had come over him but strangely enough he wished he could do it again.

It had been like nothing he had ever experienced before. Sure he had kissed girls in the past but they had never been anything like that.

Harry finally was drawn out of his thoughts and he looked up to see all of his classmates staring at him; some in disbelief, other in shock and some in disgust.

Harry's face heated and he glanced at his Professor, the man was glaring dangerously at him.

No one moved or talked, they all just stared between Snape and Harry. The silence became unnerving and Harry began to fidget.

Then, "Potter" was whispered in a deathly quiet tone "Come. With. Me."

Harry gulped and followed his angry Professor.

The rest of the students stared after them.

…

Harry noticed as he followed Snape, with his shoulders slumped, staring at the floor, that they weren't headed towards Dumbledore's office. Instead they were descending into the dungeons. Harry had a feeling that's where the remains of his body would be found.

Snape pushed open the door to his office so forcefully it slammed against the wall behind it. "In" he growled, glaring at Harry.

Harry was quick to comply.

Snape stalked to his desk and sat down in his chair; he continued to glare at Harry and then ordered him to sit.

Harry sat quickly in the chair facing Snape's desk.

Harry waited for the man to say something but he didn't, instead he just glared. Harry could tell he was fuming on the inside but Harry guessed he probably wasn't sure what to say just yet.

"Since I don't believe you would have been rightly punished, as you deserve, if I had brought you to the Headmaster, you will receive your punishment down here and you will not complain. Got it?" Snape sneered finally, in a controlled voice.

Harry stiffened and nodded.

"Good," Snape said "now I want an explanation! What the hell was that? What did you think you were doing? Do you think it was funny, that you would get some laugh out of tormenting your Professor in front of your entire year?"

Harry shook his head jerkily; Snape's normal pale complexion was turning an angry red in rage.

"You disgust me Potter; you're just like your father. He too had no respect for the rules or anyone else around him…" Snape began going into a long rant.

Harry tried to pay attention, he knew he deserved every nasty thing Snape was spewing about him but he just couldn't concentrate.

Snape had stood up and was now pacing around like a mad man.

Harry watched him as he moved, his eyes traveled down to Snape's mouth and he began to think back to the kiss. Without thinking Harry ran his tongue across his bottom lip. He could swear he could still taste the older man's lips and he almost groaned at the thought of grabbing Snape and kissing him again.

"Are you listening to me?" Snape practically shouted, slamming his firsts down on either side of Harry's chair. Snape leaned over him, his breath was coming in ragged huffs because of his anger, he was practically nose to nose with Harry.

Harry was overcome with the urge to grab Snape's robes and pull him down for another kiss. Instead of struggling, even though he knew he'd be throwing himself into more hot water, Harry leaned over and did just that.

Snape was quicker to pull away the second time than he had been the first time, as he stared at Harry in complete and utter shock.

"What's wrong with you Potter?" Snape sputtered, very uncharacteristically of him.

Harry stared at him in confusion, he didn't know what was wrong with him but somewhere deep down he felt a twinge of regret at Snape's rejection.

Harry looked down at his lap with a shake of his head, what was wrong with him? He was just about to clear his throat and apologize to Snape for acting so stupidly when he heard Snape mutter quietly "I wonder…could it be a love charm? Stranger things have happened."

Harry looked up at Snape, the man was staring at him intently like he was a puzzle that needed to be figured out and in the back of Harry's mind he remembered Draco's rule about the competition 'You can't tell anyone about the game other than the people in this room. You have to make up your own excuse and run with it.'

'Hmm' Harry thought to himself 'If Snape thinks that it is some kind of love charm why not go with it? Maybe he won't be as angry with me if I can pull it off.'

With that thought in mind Harry looked at his Professor and pouted "Did I do something wrong Professor?" then he leapt up and lunged at the Potions Master.

Before he could even reach Snape, the man had hit him with a stunning spell and Harry hit the floor with a thud.

"I guess I should take you to the headmaster after all" Snape muttered.

…

Once Snape had explained to Dumbledore exactly what had happened, he slumped in his chair that was right beside the one Harry sat in, still stunned.

"I see," Dumbledore said "but you couldn't identify the charm or potion?"

"No," Snape said with a grunt "I couldn't identify it which makes me think it is a new spell. I wouldn't normally jump to that conclusion but he was acting very strangely and you never know with Potter."

"Hmm" Dumbledore said in thought "that is very peculiar Severus, thank you for informing me. If you leave Potter with me I'm sure we can get everything sorted out. I'm sorry for the inconvenience my boy."

Snape grunted again but then stood up.

"I'll leave him with you Albus, I have much more important things to do but I must insist you let me know who has cursed Potter once you get it figured out. I will not allow this deed to go unpunished. Someone deserves to be cursed for what they put me through this evening."

Dumbledore nodded solemnly "I don't know about the cursing part Severus but I'll be sure to let you know."

Snape gave one last glare to Harry and then he swept out of the office, his robes billowing behind him.

Dumbledore sighed and laced his fingers together, and then he leaned forward and studied Harry intensely.

Harry felt like shivering and pulling away but couldn't because of the stunning spell.

Dumbledore waved his hand and with a burst of wandless magic released Harry from the spell.

Harry almost let out a sigh of relief, and then he remembered he needed to play up his act if Dumbledore was going to believe him. "Where did Professor Snape go?" Harry asked in the dreamiest voice he could manage, "Will he be coming back?"

Dumbledore narrowed his gaze at Harry and the boy had a feeling he hadn't accomplished his goal.

"You can drop the act Harry" Dumbledore said sitting back in his chair.

Harry tensed but didn't change his posture or acknowledge that Dumbledore had said anything.

"I need to see Professor Snape" Harry tried again.

Dumbledore shook his head "I know you are faking Harry. I know that all the seventh years have something going on and it has to do with the teachers."

"I…" Harry began shocked that Dumbledore knew "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Of course you don't," Dumbledore said and Harry couldn't believe his sarcastic tone "Do you really think that I wouldn't figure out something was up, especially after that stunt Mister Zambini played on Wednesday?"

"Uh…" Harry said with a shrug.

"I didn't take away Quidditch so that you students could get together and play pranks on the teachers" Dumbledore said seriously.

Harry didn't know what to say.

"I want it to stop Harry," Dumbledore said "you and your classmates have had your fun and games but it has gone far enough."

Harry still hadn't said anything; he just stared wide eyed at the Headmaster. "That's not…we're not…I don't know what you're talking about" Harry stuttered again and felt like slapping himself that didn't make him seem obvious at all…

Dumbledore did not look happy "You're not doing yourself any favors Harry. You're lucky that I'm not going to tell Professor Snape the truth that you weren't under a love charm; however that might change if these pranks do not stop."

Harry wondered briefly if Dumbledore was trying to threaten him…he decided the old man was. Harry shook his head, he wasn't going to say anything to Dumbledore and get his House disqualified.

Dumbledore sighed "Very well then Harry, please be sure to pass on a message to your friends. Anyone found participating in these pranks will be severely punished."

Harry just stared at him; he wouldn't acknowledge what Dumbledore had said because that would be admitting that he had something to hide.

"You have detention for the next two weeks with Flich," Dumbledore said easily "You may go but consider yourself warned."

Harry shivered but stood up and left.

…

As Harry walked out of Dumbledore's office he realized that the hour that all houses had to spend together wasn't up yet but he didn't want to go to face everyone after what he had done to Snape, and yet he knew he had to.

Harry hurried up to the seventh floor as quickly as he could. When he got to the Room of Requirement he took a moment to compose himself and then walked in.

All of the quiet whispering stopped and everyone stared up at him in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Draco asked after a while "I was sure Snape would have gotten you expelled."

Harry shrugged and walked further into the room "I played it off as a love charm so he took me to Dumbledore instead" Harry explained.

"A love charm?" Draco snorted "And Snape actually fell for that…wow he must be having an off day."

"Well he did," Harry said "but now we have bigger issues."

Draco frowned at him and the rest of the room looked at him questioningly.

"Apparently Dumbledore wasn't so sure about the love charm thing," Harry said sitting down beside Hermione "He knows we are up to something and he wants it to stop."

"What do you mean?" Hermione asked.

"He gave me a message for everyone," Harry told them "He said that anyone found participating in these pranks would be severely punished."

"No kidding," Blaise said "I have to write and apology letter to Madame Pince and have to help out in the Library for the rest of the year."

"Well you deserved it" Hermione huffed and the two glared at each other.

"Well we're not just going to quit" Draco said loudly.

"What?" Hermione asked snapping her gaze away from Blaise to Draco.

"Just because Dumbledore says he doesn't approve and threatens us with a punishment doesn't mean we are going to stop. We aren't cowards."

"It has nothing to do with being a coward" Hermione argued.

"Drop out if you like mudblood but don't expect us to follow suit" Draco sneered.

"Shut up Malfoy!" Ron shouted getting to his feet.

Harry could tell that a fight was about to break out "Stop it," he said "Everyone should have the option to drop out if they want to as long as they still promise not to tell anyone but no one has to give up either."

"That sounds fair enough" Draco agreed "So who will be dropping out?"


	5. Decisions

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**Please R&R **

**Enjoy! **

**...**

After a short but heavy silence Hermione jumped to her feet. "Well I certainly am. I'm not going to jeopardize my education by competing in a challenge which I have stated from the beginning is idiotic!"

Hand on her hips, she gave a jerky nod and looked expectantly at the others.

They all avoided eye contact with her and looked around at each other waiting for someone else to declare that they were dropping out too.

No one said anything.

Draco cleared his throat "Anyone else?"

His question was met with silence, just students shaking their heads.

Hermione gaped at them. "Are you kidding me? No one else is dropping out? What about Dumbledore's warning, you're all willing to risk your academic careers?"

No one wanted to answer her. A few students shrugged while Draco smirked smugly at her.

"Even you Padma? You have the second highest score of our year. You're willing to just throw that away?" Hermione practically pleaded, hoping that her friends had some sense.

Padma bit her lip after being singled out. "I guess…I mean yeah Dumbledore did threaten to punish us but I doubt it could be that bad for just some silly little pranks. Besides…well it's fun. I haven't had this much fun since before the war."

Students sitting around her murmured their agreement.

Hermione shook her head in disbelief. "You're going to give it all away just for a bit of fun?"

"Enough Granger," Draco sneered "you can drop out if you want but the others have the right to choose what to do without you pestering them."

Hermione glared at him.

"Now they've chosen, so stop your nattering and let us get on with the challenge. There isn't much time left, our hour is almost up." Draco said as he summoned the hats to him.

"Harry…" Hermione attempted one last time "Ron?"

Harry felt guilty but he shook his head "I'm still in."

Hermione glared at him before turning her fiery gaze on Ron "Ronald!" she demanded, sounding shrill.

Ron gulped.

"Go ahead Weasley," Draco said from where he was passing the first hat to each team Capitan "Do what you're little girlfriend ordered, I'm sure your team can cope just fine without you."

Ron blushed crimson "Sorry Hermione," he mumbled "but I'm still in too."

Hermione glared at her friends angrily. When it sunk in that no one was going to heed her advice, she made a disgruntled sound and made her way to the door.

"Oh Granger," Draco called after her before she could leave "Remember you can't tell anyone about the challenge, or your punishment will be much worse than just disqualifying your house."

Both Ron and Harry tensed at Draco's words, they may agree that Hermione couldn't tell anyone but she was still their friend and they didn't like the way the Slytherin was threating her.

But before they could jump to her defense, Hermione puffed out her chest "Don't worry Malfoy, against my better judgment I won't turn you in, I'll let you learn for yourselves just why you shouldn't play with fire."

With that she turned on her heel and left.

"We're going to pay for that later" Ron whispered to Harry once Hermione was gone.

"Oh yeah…" Harry said with a nod.

"Okay, let's get this over with" Draco stated, once all the team leaders had the name of the student that would compete in the challenge that week.

"Hold on" Luna said before anyone had the chance to read out their name.

"What now?" Draco groaned.

"We should remove Dumbledore from the list of staff members that can be picked. He's already on to us and will be waiting for any of us to step out of line; it would be dangerous to play a prank on him.

They all thought it over "Blaise, remove the old coot's name from the teacher's hat."

Blaise did so.

"Now can we get this thing started" Draco said impatiently. When no one objected "I'll go first," he looked down at the paper in his hands and after a pause said "me."

Then he nodded towards the Ravenclaws, "Lisa" Terry read from his paper.

"Ron," Seamus called out next and Ron groaned beside him.

"Susan" Ernie finished.

The hats were passed around again and the chosen students picked out their challenges for the week.

Draco cleared his throat and read out "I must…bite Hagrid's leg" Draco couldn't stop the horrified look that crossed over his features for a split second. "That…that's disgusting" he said.

"But yet not impossible" Ron piped up with a grin.

Draco glared at him before schooling his features "I wouldn't be so cocky Weasley, don't forget, you're up next."

That shut Ron up effectively.

"I…" Lisa began nervously "have to pat Flitwick's head…oh dear, he's not going to like that."

The Slytherins laughed.

"At least you don't have to bite someone" Draco sneered.

Harry prodded Ron in the side; they barely had five minutes before the hour would be up.

Ron coughed before reading "I have to squeeze Professor Lupin's torso…" Ron blushed "uh…like a hug?"

All the students laughed.

"Exactly like a hug!" Seamus chuckled, slapping Ron on the back.

When the laughter had died down, Susan quietly stated "I have to smell Professor's Sprout's shoulder…"

"That's not too bad," Justin said to his shy housemate "we'll help you think of something."

"Well that's that," Draco said as he vanished the hats "at the end of this week you're all going down!"

Most of the students shook their heads or rolled their eyes at his cocky behavior, at least none of them had to bite someone.

…

"So what happened during the first half of the hour?" Harry asked Ron hesitantly as they made their way back to Gryffindor Common Room.

Ron blushed for a moment "Well everyone was right shocked after you kissed Snape…" Ron shook his head like he was trying to rid himself of the image "It took us a minute to snap out of it and enter the room of requirement."

"Malfoy made a few…choice comments about the scene…" Ron trailed off again as Seamus and Dean fell into step beside them.

"Well of course he did," Seamus said "it was bloody convincing after all, I'm not surprised Snape thought you were under a love charm, you really went for it mate."

Harry tried to stop himself from blushing "Err…it wasn't that bad was it?"

Seamus laughed "You looked like you were attacking his mouth….it was gross, but like I said convincing, you got us a bunch of points."

"I wasn't really thinking…" Harry said

"Well of course," Seamus said "you were probably trying to block out the horror of it all. I'm going to have nightmares for weeks and I was only watching, I can't imagine how bad it was for you."

"Yeah," Harry said "it was…gross."

"Disgusting mate" Ron clarified.

Harry nodded "Exactly."

"Well anyway, at least it's done with now" Ron said.

Again Harry nodded.

"Anyway," Ron continued "then we gave our memories to Peeves; I gave him mine instead of yours because I was standing the closest. He gave us thirty points, said that it was a little disappointing that the only ones around were those who knew of the challenge but still the task was daunting."

"Plus he gave you a few extra points for managing to not get hexed on the spot" Dean added.

"The Slytherins got thirty points too," Ron said making a face "Peeves said that it was planned out well, there were a lot of people around and Zabini pulled it off perfectly."

"Yeah, but at least we're still beating them, they only have thirty five points because of how bad Parkinson did last week" Dean said reasonably.

"Still, we definitely have to get a good score this week," Seamus said "we can't have Malfoy beating us."

"I can't believe he has to bite Hagrid," Harry said "I feel sorry for him."

All three of the other boys stopped in shock and gawked at him "You feel sorry for Malfoy?" Ron almost yelled in disbelief.

Harry laughed "Not Malfoy, for Hagrid! He's gonna have Malfoy germs."

Dean and Seamus laughed.

"Oh…right" Ron said as they continued to the common room. "Too bad we can't warn him."

"So Ron," Seamus said with a grin "any ideas on how you're going to hug Professor Lupin?"

Ron groaned "No."

"Don't worry, we'll think of something" Seamus said.

…

As the four boys stepped into the common room they noticed Hermione sitting on the couch doing her homework.

"I think I'm gonna head up to bed," Seamus said quickly.

"Yeah…me too" Dean said hurrying to the stairs.

'Good Luck' Seamus mouthed before disappearing.

Ron nervously wrung his hands together "She looks busy, maybe we should leave her alone for tonight."

Harry shook his head and grabbed Ron's sleeve before he could disappear "Come on, it's better if we get this over with now."

Ron sighed but followed Harry over to the couch.

"Um…hey Hermione" Harry began.

Hermione lowered the text book she had been reading and looked at them with one brow raised "Can I help you?"

"Oh come on Hermione, don't be mad" Ron said once he found his voice.

"I'm not mad" Hermione stated.

"You…you're not?" Ron questioned.

"No" Hermione answered shortly "you've made your bed and now you can lie in it, there's nothing I can say to change it and I will not be getting involved."

"Really?" Ron asked, shocked.

"Yes," Hermione answered "but I don't want any part in it, no taking about the 'challenge' in my presence, or asking me for advice. In my mind it doesn't exist."

"You're really okay with it?" Harry asked.

"No," Hermione stated "but as I said there is nothing I can do about it, so there is no use fighting about it, it would just be a waste of my energy."

"Well…okay," Ron said "so you're not mad at us?"

Hermione glared at them "Mad no…disappointed yes."

With that she closed her text, gathered her things and made her way to the girls' dorm.

They watched her go.

"Well I guess that could have been worse" Ron stated.

"Yeah, but I still feel bad" Harry agreed.

Ron sighed again "I think I'm going to go to bed."

"Me too" Harry said.


	6. Playing With Fire

**Don't Own. **

**Please R&R**

**Enjoy! **

…

The next day as Harry stepped out of the common room on his way down to breakfast, his stomach was churning with nervousness and he kept fidgeting restlessly with the sleeves of his robe.

He was sure that after the night before, word of him kissing Snape would have traveled like wildfire.

He could just see Malfoy boasting to anyone who would listen about the pervy Boy-Who-Lived who had basically thrown himself at their most hated Professor.

Ron walking next to him, Harry kept glancing up at all the people they past, thinking he would see looks of disgust on their faces.

However that wasn't the case. Nobody even seemed to notice or pay attention to them when he and Ron walked by.

It was the same in the Great Hall. Everyone was acting normal, eating and chatting; none of them paid any special attention to him.

Once they were seated Harry looked up at the Staff Table and shivered when he caught Dumbledore's eye.

The headmaster stared at him; no twinkle in his eyes, his look seemed to say 'I hope you have taken my warning to heart'.

Then he turned away to speak to Professor McGonagall.

Harry took a deep breath and then found his eyes wandering to the other end of the table, only to find and empty seat, Snape was not there.

Harry told himself that he was happy Snape wasn't there, but deep down he knew that wasn't the truth.

…

For the rest of the day it was obvious that none of the seventh years had told anyone about his and Snape's kiss.

Harry guessed it was because they were trying to lie low and stay under Dumbledore's radar. He figured if the whole school was talking about the incident then Dumbledore might be more fueled to take them down as soon as possible.

None of the teachers seemed any different either and Harry guessed that Snape had decided not to tell anyone, though Harry had expected that.

During lunch hour, when Harry, Ron, Seamus and Dean were hanging out by the lake sine it was nice and sunny that Saturday afternoon, Neville and Luna came running up to them.

"Harry…" Neville gasped out, slightly out of breath.

"What is it Nev?" Harry asked looking up at his friends.

Neville looked around to make sure there was no one that could overhear them.

"Malfoy did it…he completed his challenge" Neville said quietly, Luna nodding beside him.

"What?" Ron asked sitting up a bit straighter "How?"

"We were in the courtyard having our lunch, along with a few younger students, when we saw Hagrid walking across the lawn; he looked like he was heading down to his hut. All of the sudden Malfoy ran by us and right when he was about to reach Hagrid he 'tripped' and fell against his legs." Neville was shaking his head.

"The next thing we heard was Draco calling out in pain," Luna continued her bright eyes wide "Since Hagrid is half-giant he must have very tough skin because when Draco looked up his mouth was bloody and his front tooth was chipped in half. It probably had something to do with the force of Malfoy's fall too, he practically barreled into Hagrid."

"Hagrid was all apologies when he got a look at Draco's face, even though it obviously wasn't his fault," Neville added "he was probably remembering what happened in third year when Malfoy got hurt."

"Wow," Ron said "and he actually broke his tooth?"

"Yeah, Hagrid escorted him to the infirmary after that and we came to find you" Neville answered.

"What's wrong Harry?" Seamus asked and everyone turned to look at the raven haired boy, he had a grim look on his face.

Harry shook his head "If Malfoy had to go to the infirmary, there's no way Dumbledore isn't going to hear about it."

"Well…Malfoy could have fallen accidently couldn't he?" Seamus tried to reason "Maybe Dumbledore won't suspect."

"Maybe," Harry said "but I doubt it."

…

That night at dinner, Harry and Ron sat side by side. Ron was shoveling his food into his mouth but Harry was only picking at the food on his plate. He didn't feel hungry, he had had an unnerving feeling ever since Neville and Luna had told them about Malfoy and he couldn't shake it.

He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up and got an eerie feeling that someone was watching him.

He glanced at the staff table.

Sirius' eyes were locked on him but they seemed unfocused like he was trying to figure something out.

Harry's attention snapped to Remus who was beside Sirius, the werewolf was looking concerned his eyes never straying from Sirius.

Harry gulped and turned away quickly.

They knew.

There was no other explanation for it.

"I…" Harry began and Ron looked up at him "I'm not feeling too well; I think I'm going to go up to bed."

Ron frowned "You want me to come with you?"

"No, it's fine," Harry assured him "I'll be okay."

Hermione who was sitting a few seats down looked up at him worriedly. When he stood up she looked like she was going to get up and follow him but Harry shook his head, he needed to be alone.

He tried to keep his pace controlled as he headed for the doors, he didn't want to run out of the Great Hall and draw attention to himself.

He pulled open the door and began to walk out; as the doors shut behind him the last thing he saw was Dumbledore looking at him, a sad expression on his face and Harry just knew he had been the one to tell Sirius.

As soon as the doors had closed behind him, Harry quickened his step wanting to get to the Gryffindor Tower quickly, however he didn't get far.

A hand landed on his shoulder and spun him around.

Harry found himself looking Sirius in the face, with Remus close behind.

"We need to talk" Sirius said seriously.

Harry bit his lip as his godfather led him down the corridor and into an empty classroom. When Remus walked in behind them Sirius shut the door and put up a silencing charm.

Harry didn't get a chance to say anything as Sirius was quick to ask angrily "Did you kiss Snape?"

Harry fidgeted and stared at the ground.

Sirius practically growled "Harry James Potter I asked you a question."

Harry looked up, Sirius looked furious; Harry glanced at Remus looking for help or preferably a way to escape.

Remus shook his head, as much as he wanted to there was nothing he could say to stop Sirius' tirade.

Sirius moved closer to Harry, his face softened a bit when he saw the look of pure panic on Harry's face.

"I…I…yes" Harry finally stuttered, looking at the floor.

The news seemed to physically hit Sirius as he stepped back like he had just received a blow.

After a minute he said "I didn't want to believe it when the Headmaster told me, he was rather rushed after all and I was hoping he was just mistaken. But Harry, Snivellus…really?"

"It was a love charm!" Harry burst out frantically.

Sirius looked up at him "Honestly? Dumbledore didn't mention that, he just said Snape had brought you to his office last night, and then before he could say anything else there was an emergency with one of the first year's charms classes."

"I swear," Harry said "Snape couldn't figure out if it was a love charm or potion but all I know is I felt weird and tingly and I wasn't myself."

"But who did it Harry?" Remus asked.

"I don't know," Harry lied, hoping that Remus' acute senses wouldn't pick up on the fact that he was sweating and lying through his teeth "I had no idea I was even cursed or when it happened."

"Ah thank merlin…I mean I'd like to wring whoever's neck who decided this sick joke would be funny, but I'm glad you didn't just randomly decide to kiss the great slimy bastard." Sirius said.

Harry had to hold back a sigh of relief.

Sirius ruffled Harry's hair "I'm sorry you had to go through that pup." His face scrunched up into a disgusted look "I can't even imagine how horrible it would be to kiss Snivellus."

Harry's stomached dropped at the look on Sirius' face, he couldn't even imagine what his godfather would say if he knew Harry and enjoyed the kiss and had wanted to do it again. He hoped he would never find out.

Suddenly Harry wanted to leave the room even more than he had before.

"Uh Sirius…" Harry said "Do you mind if I head up to my dorm now, I have a Charms essay I have to finish and I wanted to get started on it."

"Homework?" Sirius said "on a Saturday? That must be Lily's genes taking; you couldn't catch me or James doing homework on a Saturday, not in your life."

"And that's why you almost failed all your classes," Remus interjected "Harry has the right idea."

Sirius shrugged "Okay Harry, good luck with the essay, we'll see you around and don't you worry, we'll catch whoever cursed you."

"Yeah…thanks," Harry said before exiting the room.

When he got up to his dorm he fell forward onto the bed with a groan, he wanted to scream with frustration but refrained from doing so. Instead he replayed the conversation with Sirius over and over again, knots in his stomach tightening every time he remembered the look of disgust on his face.

Harry couldn't believe Dumbledore had actually done this to him.

…

_Soft lips touched his, parting at the swipe of his tongue. _

_The mouth so sweet devoured his own and he groaned deep in his throat. _

_Pushing against the hard body before him, he opened his eyes and found himself staring into passionate dark eyes. _

_He gasped and a tongue snuck into his open mouth. _

"I've got it!"

Harry jolted awake.

He was sweaty and confused.

Plus he could feel an uncomfortable stickiness in his pants.

He groaned.

"Shut it Ron" Harry heard Neville say and he looked towards his voice to see Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean sitting on the latter two's beds.

"Way to go Ron, you've woken him up" Seamus said.

Ron looked sheepish "Sorry Harry."

"It's fine," Harry said "I was having a nightmare anyway."

Relieved Ron grinned.

"So?" Harry asked "what is it you've got?"

"Oh!" Ron said jumping up like he had almost forgotten "I know how I'm going to pull of my challenge."

"Yeah?" Harry asked "How's that?"

"Well we have Charms right before Defense on Monday right?" Ron began.

"Uh huh?" Harry said.

"Well I found this charm in our text book a few weeks ago that makes whoever it's cast on get hysterical. I'll get one of you guys to cast it on me…it would probably be best if it's you Neville, that way it would be more believable that you did it by accident…"

"Hey!" Neville said, annoyed.

"Sorry Nev, I didn't mean it like that" Ron apologized.

Neville crossed his arms over his chest but didn't complain further.

"Anyway, I'll get one of you to do it right before I enter the Defense class and once I start acting all hysterical, Remus will most likely come over to see what's wrong. That's when I'll hug him and afterwards I can blame it on the spell."

"Well it's probably you're best shot," Harry said "I couldn't see you hugging Remus for any other reason."

Ron grinned "Now we should get some sleep."

All the boys gave him funny looks.

"What?" Ron said "I want all of you guys to practice the spell tomorrow so nothing goes wrong on Monday."

Harry shrugged, he still was feeling tired but he didn't want to have another one of those dreams again.

As the other boys got ready for bed Harry discreetly cast a cleaning spell to get rid of the stickiness, then he lay down on his side and tried to think of anything but Snape.

…

Monday came faster than any of the students wanted but they dragged themselves out of their beds and got ready for the day of classes.

In charms as the students were casting the spells they were learning for that day, Harry heard a commotion at the front of the room.

Lisa was standing beside a red faced Flickwick.

"Oh Professor!" she gasped "I'm so so so sorry! I didn't see you there!"

Harry frowned, he and the rest of the class wondered what had happened, it seemed that only a few students closest to the Professor had seen anything.

Flitwick took a moment to collect himself before he huffed "It's quite alright, though next time I hope you watch what you are doing."

"Oh yes Professor, of course I will," Lisa said "Sorry again!"

"What happened?" Ron whispered.

"No idea" Harry said back.

Hermione who had been close to the action shot them a look and shook her head.

…

"Okay Neville," Ron said as soon as they were a few feet from the Defense classroom "do it now."

Neville took a deep breath, pointed his wand at Ron and cast the spell.

The change was instant.

Ron's normally pale face became red and his eyes narrowed as he let out a frustrated howl just as the door to the class opened and all of the fifth year students as well as Remus, walked out of the room.

Ron began ranting, his words making no sense as he threw his hand in the air.

Then he pointed at Neville and the other boys who were all standing there shocked, none of them had known the spell would be so strong, and stamped his feet.

Remus hurried over "Ron, what's the matter?"

Ron turned with a look of pure outrage on his face but as soon as he saw Remus his lip trembled and he broke out into tears.

"What?" Remus said worriedly, staring at Ron like he had grown two heads. He looked over at Harry "What's wrong with him?"

Harry shrugged "I don't know, he just went mental."

The other boys nodded.

Ron's hysteria was starting cause quite a scene. Not only were the seventh and fifth years watching, but so were some other students that had been passing by on their way to classes. All the portraits were looking, as well as a ghost that had been floating by.

Tears ran down Ron's face and Remus tried patting his shoulder to calm him down, but of course that didn't work.

Before Remus could comprehend what was happening Ron had thrown his arms around Remus' midsection and squeezed tightly.

Remus was obviously shocked.

"It's okay Ron, you're fine" he said as he awkwardly patted Ron's shoulder.

Then he sent Harry a 'help me' look.

For a second Harry thought about not helping him since Remus had been no help to him the other night with Sirius, but he finally decided that it would be in the seventh years' best interest if he stepped in now.

Plus he really couldn't hold a grudge against Remus.

"Come on Ron," Harry said stepping close to his friend and placing a hand on his shoulder, hoping the other boy would follow his lead "maybe I should bring him to the infirmary."

"Good idea" Remus said and looked relieved as Ron's arms loosened and he began to follow Harry.

"Uh…Neville, would you go with them please?" Remus asked "In case Harry needs any help."

Neville nodded and hurried to follow Ron and Harry.

When they got around the corner and Neville checked to see that they were alone, he took out his wand and whispered "Finite Incantatem."

Ron staggered for a moment before slumping against Harry.

"That was crazy" Neville whispered.

Ron groaned "I'm never going to live that down."

"Do you still want to go to the infirmary?" Harry asked.

"I think I have to," Ron answered "I feel like I'm going to pass out."

…

The week flew by and soon it was Friday night again.

None of the students other than Harry had seen any backlash from Dumbledore yet, though that didn't calm the Gryffindor's nerves one bit. He knew it would be coming.

When the students got up from dinner to head to their respective meeting places, Harry noticed that Hermione hadn't moved from her spot at the table.

"Are you not coming?" he asked.

"I got a note from Dumbledore that said he wanted to speak with me before I joined you guys" Hermione explained.

Ron's eyes widened "You're not gonna tell…"

"Him about the challenge?" Hermione finished "I already said I wouldn't."

But Harry could tell she looked nervous and that didn't bode well for any of them.

"You better go," Hermione said pointing to the doors of the Great Hall where their year was already leaving "you don't want to be caught lingering here by Dumbledore."

"Right," Harry said, his stomach in knots "good luck."

Then he dragged Ron away.

…

**A/N: **

**Hey guys, hope you like the chapter, I'm finally getting back into the swing of things. **

**To any of my followers who read 'Is Their Love Possible' please check out my profile where you will find a link to a picture I had commissioned on Deviant Art for the story. I'd love to know what you think. **


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